ASSESSMENT OF THE EFFECT OF A DECONTAMINA TION PROCESS OF BROILER CARCASSES ON THERMOTOLERANT CAMPYLOBACTERS

In the last few years, human enteropathogenicity of thermotolerant Cam pylobacters has been demonstrated. It is now recognized as a leading f oodborne pathogen. Poultry is one of the major sources of these bacter ia because of its asymptomatic carriage by living animals. The operati ons in processing plants (immersion scalding, defeathering, eviscerati on) don't succeed in eliminating Campylobacters and involve an externa l infection of carcasses. The poultry industry must reduce strongly or eliminate completely Campylobacters from poultry meat, AVGARD(TM) pro cess consists in dipping post-eviscerated chicken carcasses during 15 s in a water bath at room temperature with 10% trisodium phosphate (TS P). In a comparative study involving 17 treated and 17 control carcass es, the effect of treatment on the reduction of thermotolerant Campylo bacters attached to the carcasses, was measured in carcasses rinses us ing the most probable number technique. A reduction of thermophilic Ca mpylobacters by 1.3 log was observed in TSP treated carcasses rinses. The effect of TSP may be due to the high pH, to a direct lethal effect , to an inhibition of the cell adhesion on chicken skin, to a bacteria l cell autolysis.